PLASMA – Revolutionary Methods to Scaling DApp?

What if, the majority decentralized autonomous applications would be scalable? Plasma, recently being introduced by Joseph Poon and Vitalik Buterin on August 10. What is Plasma exactly? And how it could be work?

From their main site, Plasma is a proposed to become a framework for incentivized and also enforced the smart contract execution, scalable, ability to handling significant amount billions state update per second.

The projections is, Plasma wouldn’t for financial activity only as the economics aspect. Plasma design would also construct an incentives into global data services. If it going to work perfectly, it will replaced centralized server farms.

The incentive, will be operate via network transaction fees, which is ultimately reliant upon the blockchain. There are a lot of applications around the world that build based on from the benefit of the blockchain technology and smart contract. By the conceptual of Plasma, it will be the technical design into some applications development that build based on the token projects. Let’s try to look at the design from plasma whitepaper draft.

Plasma design having two major key part, first is how to reframing blockchain computation into a set of MapReduce functions, and the second is an optional method to do Proof-of-Stake token. The token based on proof-of-stake here, will be bonding on top of existing blockchain, so there will be blockchain inside blockchain. So what will be the benefit of the Plasma design?

Scalable Multi Party Computation

Lightning Network has known as a model to handling Blockchain scalability problem. But unfortunately it will require full validation to keep the block valid, by using time commitment to build a fidelity bond. This is a model of an assert or a challenge agreement. The assert data must be subject to dispute a period of time so that will allow participants to enforcing the state into blockchain. Based on this assert construction, we already seen in ethereum. By the useable of lightning network, it’s possible to create some off-chain state.

Plasma design closely might similar with lightning network. At this poin, Plasma will also create a series of contract, and then runs on top of the existing blockchain. Because plasma would also using off-chain state, so it will able to handling the scalability.

Creating economic incentive

At the momen, there are a lot of eth token platform has been running. The possibility using Plasma, will be create new structure that could be proposed an economic incentive. Later, in every Plasma chain will represent a new set of contract. The contract soon will going to enforce the rules of the chain, so the fraud causes will able to get penalties if there is a proof that could provide.

Later, Plasma chain will also requires the token based on proof-of-stake structure. The token itself represent the network effect to operating the contract, so it would be creates an incentive, in order to get maximize the security of the contract.

Enforcing blockchain inside the blockchain

If we seeing lightning network as an adjustment layer for payment system, so Plasma design will also trying to composes the similar, as a mechanism that might be similar as a court system.

The child blockchain will be run on top of a root of the existing blockchain. The token then would be bonded in the contract to enforced the proof of stake consensus rule in the blockchain.

Using MapReduce to designing computation format

MapReduce format is used to be easily designing computation and state transition in the hierarchical tree. MapReduce will be gives a framework with a high scale computation across all of the node.

Commitment data used as an input, the next step will include a merkleized proof of state transition. Plasma said, that they will enable incredible high scale computation, with time or speed trade-offs.

Plasma Criticism

What do we already read above, is the main idea from Plasma. But at the first Plasma announcing, both Vitalik and Joseph Poon also gain a lot of critic. Peter Todd, from bitcoin core developer, argue that plasma is a kind of bullshit. It was because on the plasma design much talking about “computation”, which is doesn’t existed in the Ethereum platform.

Peter Todd said, Plasma didn’t prevent anything as the security requirement, so does with Plasma. He also said that the Plasma description about Threechains is misses the point. “The exchange data might be lose part. But minimum data needed ~ same as before”, said Peter.

At the moment, Plasma might be keep running the development, so all criticism must be consider as good point to being fixed.